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Brookline bans Styrofoam and all uses of polystyrene

Published On: Nov 14 2012 09:05:05 AM EST

BROOKLINE, Mass. -

Brookline Town Meeting voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday, Nov. 13, to ban all forms of polystyrene in the town with a vote of 169 to 27, going against amendments from both the Brookline Board of Selectmen and the Advisory Committee, Wicked Local Brookline reported.

The vote bans all packaging containing polystyrene, including the most common form, Styrofoam, as well as other rigid forms of the substance, starting on December 1, 2013.

The Board of Selectmen voted last month to only ban Styrofoam, but that amendment was shot down by Town Meeting by a vote of 139 to 66. The Advisory Committee amendment, which asked that the ban not affect the packaging of uncooked meat, poultry and fish, because of a lack of acceptable alternatives, was also rejected by Town Meeting, by a vote of 111 to 92.

Nancy Heller, a Town Meeting member who wrote the warrant article, said she first started researching the issue after getting a cup of coffee from a Dunkin’ Donuts in Great Barrington, when she realized it was served in a paper cup. She discovered Great Barrington banned polystyrene containers 22 years ago.

Heller looked into banning the substance in Brookline, and discovered a study from the United States Department of Health and Human Services that stated that styrene, the principal component in polystyrene, is a likely carcinogen.

“It seems to me the environmental effects are reason enough to ban this stuff,” said Heller, at Town Meeting.

She added that the substance is also not biodegradable and damaging to the environment.

Since drafting the original warrant article, Heller discovered that polystyrene can be found in a number of other items besides Styrofoam, and in a more rigid form. Some examples include certain lids to food containers or the lids to coffee cups. An illustration of this distinction can be found in an average cup of coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts. The cups used by Dunkin’ Donuts to serve coffee are made of Styrofoam, but the lids also contain polystyrene, in another form.

Containers made with the rigid form of polystyrene have the number “6” on them, and although the town of Brookline approves the items for recycling, those items are separated out at the recycling plant and incinerated, like solid waste.

Once she discovered the distinction, Heller added all other forms of polystyrene to the ban, and Town Meeting members supported her modified warrant article on Nov. 13.Christine Riley, Director of Corporate Responsibility for Dunkin’ Donuts, spoke at the meeting, and urged Town Meeting members to vote against the proposal.

She said there are five Dunkin’ Donuts in Brookline, and the franchisees in each locationwould suffer a hardship if polystyrene were banned and the stores had to replace their Styrofoam cups.

“Shifting to paper cups will increase costs by over 50 percent for these franchisees,” she said, adding that they’ll also need to pay for heat-protective sleeves to go with the cups, for a total cost of $10,000 per year, per store.

Riley also said the ban would not reduce waste in the town.

“A polystyrene ban will not reduce or eliminate waste or increase recycling. In fact, it will simply replace one type of trash with another, resulting in more waste in the Brookline trash system,” she said.

Although she acknowledged studies have discovered styrene to be possibly carcinogenic, Riley made a clear distinction between the substance itself and polystyrene.

“The use of polystyrene packaging does not pose a health threat to consumers,” she said.Alan Balsam, the director of public health and human services for the town of Brookline, agreed with that comment.

“At this time, I’m not prepared to say there is a threat based on what I’ve seen in the literature,” he aid.

Riley said Dunkin’ Donuts has been working on finding an alternative to Styrofoam cups.

“Dunkin’ Donuts has been working very hard for the past several years to ponder replacement for our foam cup that will truly be better for guests, for our franchisees and for the environment, and I can tell you first-hand that if that existed, we would be using it,” she said.

Jim Solomon, chef and owner of the Fireplace Restaurant, who spoke at Town Meeting wearing his chef uniform because he was in the middle of catering an event at the Larz

Anderson Auto Museum, said waiting for companies like Dunkin’ Donuts to find an alternative is not the best solution.

“I believe businesses have a corporate responsibility,” said Solomon, whose restaurant is green-certified. “I applaud Dunkin’ Donuts as a good Massachusetts company, but I just don’t believe they will move as quickly on their own as they will when encouraged by the town.”

Raymond Ehrlich, regional manager of government and environmental affairs for the Dart Container Corporation, said there is plenty of misinformation regarding polystyrene, and that the substance makes up less than 1 percent of the waste disposed of in the country.

Dart Corporation has manufactured foam and non-foam food service products for over 50 years.

John Hall, a Town Meeting member from Precinct 15, was against the proposal to ban polystyrene.

“Lets get government out of our coffee cups,” he said. “Let’s not get government in the way and ban it.”

A few minutes after Hall’s comments, the final vote was tallied, and Town Meeting members agreed to ban polystyrene packaging.

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